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Pavarotti and sports

The 25th anniversary for the very first Three Tenors concert is on July 7, 2015. Can you believe it? It’s 25 years since the very first Three Tenors concert in Rome, July 7, 1990 (!!!).

And what a great concert it was! The match of the three operatic giants, the tenors Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, was a match made for the opera history books. Read more about the historic concert here.

To mark the 25th anniversary Decca has just issued a special 25th anniversary edition of the concert containing the complete concert on CD and DVD. Included on the DVD is also a documentary about the concert entitled “The Impossible Dream” which contains behind-the-scenes footage, rehearsals and interviews.

In order to mark this historic concert Decca has also just reissued the concert on LP (!!!). The arrival of this very special 25h anniversary LP edition will bring back this concert to vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1990!

It’s time to revisit this historic concert one more time! Let The Three Tenors sing! 🙂

The first Three Tenors concert in Rome, Italy in 1990 was a huge success. It was so successful everybody wanted a follow-up concert.

The 1990 concert was put together to mark the world football (soccer) championship (FIFA World Cup) which were held in Italy in the summer of 1990. The following World Cup were to be held in the US in the summer of 1994.

After some negotiations the second Three Tenors concert was held in Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on July 16, 1994. As the 1990 concert this concert was also held at the eve of the FIFA World Cup Final.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Chorus was conducted by Zubin Mehta. I remember the concert was very hyped in advance but it surely became a success. The Three Tenors and all involved surely got what they wanted from it! 🙂

The 1990 concert was put together on relatively short notice as a charity concert, but the 1994 concert was far from a charity concert and was planned well ahead.

Several record companies wanted to record the concert. Decca, which issued the 1990 concert, lost the bidding war to Warner. Also this concert was broadcasted live on TV and radio in many countries, and in the days and months that followed on TV all over the world. The audio and video recording of the concert was issued about a month later. The audio album sold quite well.

The concert is still available on Warner CD and DVD (on the Atlantic label in the US and on the Teldec label elsewhere). This Three Tenors concert also still sells good today 20 years after its first release.

Hard to think that this concert happened 20 years ago this summer! Time flies!

To celebrate this 20th anniversary Warner Classics has just issued a joint CD and DVD 20th Anniversary Celebration Edition of this concert. It also includes the video documentary “The Vision – The Making Of The Three Tenors In Concert 1994“.

This is of course a must-have for all Three Tenors fans!

Here are The Three Tenors in concert in 1994 celebrating America and one of the great football nations in the world: Brazil! 🙂

While “Fiesta 2014″ tries to capture the spirit of the host country, “England Anthems 2014” tries to burst moral for the England team in the World Cup. The album even contains God Save The Queen, Rule Britannia and excerpts from one of the Second World War speeches of Winston Churchill, followed by a song by Vera Lynn!

Both albums are available on CD, download and streaming. What both albums have in common is Pavarotti as he sings the World Cup classic Nessun dorma! from the Puccini opera Turandot on both albums. On “Fiesta 2014″ it’s the classic 1972 studio recording and on “England Anthems 2014” it’s the live recording from the first Three Tenors concert in Rome in 1990. On both versions Zubin Mehta conducts.

But frankly, could Nessun dorma! really be considered as an anthem for England? For English football? Really!? You discuss that among yourselves! 🙂

Enjoy the World Cup 2014 and may the best team win! But first, enjoy this fantastic video with Pavarotti singing Nessun dorma! from the Three Tenors concert in Paris in 1998.

The very first Three Tenors concert was held in Rome, Italy on July 7, 1990. After that first concert many more Three Tenors concerts followed, but this first one will always stand out as special. For many reasons.

The joint concert between the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the two Spanish tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras was a surprise as the three tenors, and in particular Pavarotti and Domingo, were considered as tenor rivals.

The concert was put together on relatively short notice as a charity concert and to mark the world football (soccer) championship (FIFA World Cup) which were held in Italy in the summer of 1990. The concert itself was held at the eve of the FIFA World Cup Final in Rome.

The great surprise of the evening was that the three tenors also sang a medley of arias and songs together. An encore of “‘O sole mio“ followed, and an impromptu joint performance of “Nessun dorma!” concluded the concert. Needless to say, the concert was a huge success and started the Three Tenors phenomena.

The concert was broadcasted live on TV and radio in many countries, and in the days and months that followed on TV all over the world. The audio and video recording of the concert was issued about a month later. The audio album is to this day the biggest selling classical album in world history. The concert is still available on Decca in every audio and video format known to man (except for Blu-ray), and it still sells over 20 years after its first release.

After the 1990 concert The Three Tenors held many more concerts together during the 1990s and early 2000s. I’ve managed to count 36 Three Tenors concerts in total. In 1994, 1998 and 2002 The Three Tenors held their FIFA World Cup concerts. Several Three Tenors audio and video recordings followed.

The very first Three Tenors concert in Rome, July 7, 1990 will always be special. It will never be forgotten. To remember that magic evening here is Pavarotti singing “Torna a Surriento“, followed by The Three Tenors singing “‘O sole mio”, first from the medley, then as the encore.

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This post was first published 07-07-2013 with the title “The very first Three Tenors concert in Rome, July 7, 1990”. Last revision 11-07-2014.

To mark this Euro 2012 final we need more football songs! Decca is out with a compilation disc of football songs for this great occasion, with the simple title: “Football 2012“ (Decca, 1 CD, 2012, also on download and streaming).

This CD has The Three Tenors singing “O sole mio” and Pavarotti singing “Volare” and of course “Nessun dorma!” from Puccini’s opera Turandot, in addition to 15 other tunes, both songs and instrumental pieces, with various artists.

I’m not sure if all tunes featured here are favorite football tunes among the fans, but I love the concept of the album: Pompous, glorious, over the top tunes to belt out or sing along to whilst being occupied with the greatest game in the world!

As I’ve said before: Whatever makes the ball running! 😉

So good luck to all in the final! Enjoy the game! Here is Pavarotti singing “Nessun dorma!” from a Pavarotti Plus concert in New York in 1989.

You probably do know that The Tour is the french parallel to The Giro, as the cyclists pedal around in France and not in Italy! The Tour is even more famous and even more prestigious to take part in than The Giro, they say. Well, that’s a matter of opinion! 😉

After talking to Big Luciano and Pavarotti the bird, Odd Pavarotti has decided not to follow the pedaling cyclist around France with The Tour as one did in Italy with The Giro. As Pavarotti mostly performed in Paris and not so many other places in France, it would have been a short blog post series anyway!

So this is how we will do it: In this last Giro postscript we will mark the start of The Tour on Saturday 30th June 2012 with this Paris related molto grande Pavarotti extravaganza blog post celebration! Here we go!

Today’s picture shows Pavarotti in concert in Paris on 17th May, 2005. I guess this was his last performance in Paris as part of his Farewell Tour.

The first video is Pavarotti singing the song “Vaga luna” by Vincenzo Bellini in Paris in 1985, accompanied on piano by John Wustman.

The second video is an interview from French television from 1988. The reporter speaks french and Pavarotti speaks italian! Some clips with Pavarotti singing.

The third video is a short television news clip about the open-air concert Pavarotti held on September 2, 1993, at the Champ de Mars in Paris, the same venue as The Three Tenors concert in 1998. The 1993 concert was broadcast on television with the title “Pavarotti in Paris“, and it was also issued at least twice on CD (Not so easy to get hold of! I bought both of mine in Italy!).

I saw this concert on tv in the mid 1990’s and I remember that Pavarotti wasn’t in his best form that day. Maybe that’s why this concert isn’t issued worldwide on audio or video. In fact, it’s not issued on video at all.

So there you have it! Pavarotti in Paris to mark the Le Tour de France 2012! Hope you all now are ready for Tour de France like you never have been before!

But after 20 (!) blog posts it’s now definitively over! No more blog posts on The Giro or The Tour! No blog post containing pedaling cyclist, well at least until next year!

The great team of the Giro, Big Luciano and Odd Pavarotti, together with our occasional assistant Pavarotti the bird, wish you well as we all pedal away together into the sunset. Look! We’re like three tenors on bicycles! Yes, we are. And, no, we aren’t! 😉

But don’t despair! Look out for more blog posts on Pavarotti and football! Euro 2012 isn’t over yet! And Italy is still in the game! 🙂